Mission Forever
by kayhampster
Summary: It's either kill or be killed.
1. 1

I'm baaaaaaaaaaack.

**WITH MISSION FOREVER.**

Thought this would never come back, did you? Well, actually it's not truly back. Just redone. I changed up the plot line so you should see a whole different approach than the last time I wrote it. If you remember (considering I deleted the old one) **BUT** Chapter 2 is actually written to match this version of Mission Forever so yeah. Hope you enjoy!

Oh, and check out the author notes at the end! :)

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**-Helga-**

In a house on top of a hill, surrounded by large cast iron fences, sat a large stone house. A young man by the name of Lucas Dublin walked into the living room of his new home with his fiancée. However, she was not happily stirring around the house like normal. She sat in front of the fireplace, repeatedly tapping her well-manicured fingers across the arm of the chair. She turned around to face him as he stood in the entrance of the living room, a blank expression on her face, but only for a moment as she started to speak in almost a whisper.

"We need to talk."

"Yes, my love."

He watched her push the hair out of her face and bite the edge of her brightly painted red lips.

"I saw you with her."

Lucas felt his entire body go completely numb as he stared into the tear-rimmed blue eyes of his beloved.

"You…w-w-what? Saw me with who?"

"I don't know who! Some busty blonde with her arms draped all over you. Running her hands down your chest and she knew. She knew I was right there and so did you. You should have stopped her but you didn't! You'd just love it if I were just like her, wouldn't you?"

She gave a small sob and ran out of the room, he chased and grabbed her arm, but she didn't turn around to face him.

"She means nothing to me, I didn't want her at all. I want you."

"I loved you, Lucas! And you do this? How could you just do that to me?"

"You don't understand…I'm in love with you and you love me. There's no one else…I promise…please I love you."

"I don't believe you! You don't love me, you love her, don't you?"

"I'd do anything for you. You name it; it's done. Want me to buy you expensive things? Done. You want me to take you fancy places? It's all done. What do you want from me?"

She didn't respond, he could only hear the muffled sobs as she leaned over the kitchen counter. He attempted to put a hand on her shoulder but she shrugged away from him and sobbed louder. He turned around and in an instant she spun around and swung one of the frying pans from the overhead rack across his face.

Lucas woke up and flailed around before noticing that he had been tied to one of the kitchen chairs. As he attempted to squirm out of the ropes, she appeared from the shadows. The look in her eyes is something that he had never seen in her before. What had she hit him with? He had no idea whether to be angry that she hit him in the first place or embarrassed for her ability to hit him as hard as she had.

"You have no idea what I have tried to do to get away from you!"

"But you…you said you loved…"

"You think I loved you? Fucking. Pathetic."

"You lied."

"Of course. What do you take me for? A god damn fool?"

She paced around the room in large circles, stalking around him with eager anticipation of an attack. He sat in the middle of the room, watching the bright red heels click against the floor and the long legs that went with them, traveling up her body to the dark hair that curled around the edges of her twisted face. He wondered how something so beautiful could also be something so incredibly evil.

"Why?"

"Why not? You have no idea how many times I've tried to kill you. Cutting the brakes in your car…"

"You were the one who cut my brakes? I just thought…"

"Just thought they stopped working? It was all just some bad luck?" She leaned into towards his face and looked him straight in the eyes. "You haven't even seen bad luck yet."

He lashed towards her and she backed up, launching into a fit of laughter. A laugh that he had grown to love but now seemed to hate with every word and every smile that flowed out of the woman's lips. She leaned on the back of the chair and placed her arms around Lucas's neck and leaned the chair back, put her lips on his neck and breathed on his neck, sending chills up his spine. He gulped but kept himself from turning towards her eyes, eyes of a woman with a stone cold heart.

"I'm a thief." She whispered into his neck before nipping at his neck with her teeth. "Best one yet if I can trick the son of a big shot like your daddy. Had you all eating out of the palm of my hand. What can I say; I'm greedy."

She let go of the chair and it slammed back to the ground, jerking Lucas forward, but not enough to set him free. He felt himself feeling nothing but hatred towards this woman as she paced around the room, smirking at him, knowing that she was doing everything that she could just to get to him.

"You bitch, just you wait til my father finds out."

"What is big bad daddy gonna do… when he thinks we're both dead? Everyone is going to think we were robbed. Both of us dead on the floor. Got a girl to fill in for me…ain't she a sweetheart."

She pointed to the trash bag in the corner of the room. He stopped scrambling long enough to notice the high-heeled feet sticking out of the end of the bag and froze.

"It's your little girlfriend from before. Funny the way she looked at me when she saw I was behind her. She was shocked, like she had no idea that I knew. It was perfect timing on your part, I'll give you some credit. You cheating was the icing on the cake."

"I never cheated on you."

"What, you think I care?"

She walked her fingers across his shoulders. He pulled back instantly and she smirked before reaching into her pocket.

"You know what I'm gonna do next? I'm gonna run. I'm making a new name with your money."

"You aren't getting a single cent from me." He growled.

"See, that's where you're wrong. See this?"

She twirled her fingers around the metal handle of a pistol. He instantly knew what was coming next and she leaned back in closer to his face.

"Now, I gotta put this somewhere and in order for me to get what I want, I'm gonna have to take some people down." She kept her hand on the handle and his entire body tensed up as she got closer. "So you have two choices, you figure out some way to kill me, which considering the state you are in… I doubt you could figure out something like that…"

She ran her fingers across his cheek before she lightly tapped the side of his face. He growled curses at her and she gave her best highly offended look.

"Well, you could also be a good boy and stay still while this bullet goes through your skull. Your choice, pick your poison."

"You're a monster." She ignored him, pulling the gun out of her pocket and placed the barrel in the palm of her hand.

"Now, any last words before your brains plaster the floor?"

He mumbled another curse.

"I'm sorry…I couldn't hear that. Mind repeating that for me?"

The barrel of the gun now rested on his forehead, right into between his eyes. She leaned back towards his face, closer that the past few times, almost to the point that their noses were touching. He stopped to look in her eyes and knew that anything that he tried to do was pointless. She was stronger than she looked, sneaky and clever. If he tried any sort of attack, she would know. He couldn't even break the ropes that were cutting off the circulation to his wrists. He was sweating, attempting to formulate some sort of plan in his head but it was too late. He was done for.

"I would have given you the money regardless, you could have had everything and stayed with me. I loved you, I still love you. Just please don't kill me. I'll never tell. You don't have to kill and run."

"Oh, but I really do. I really, really do."

The last sound in the large stone house was the sound of a gunshot rattling throughout. Off in the distance, the sound of heels on a hardwood floor clicked rhythmically as Helga Pataki escapes out the back door and climbs into one of Lucas' very expensive Rolls Royces, hoping to pawn it off for some extra cash. Well, maybe she'd actually keep this car, consider it a gift from a ex-lover. She turned the key and drove off into the sunset, leaving two dead bodies and another identity behind her.

**-Arnold-**

A cornflower yellow-haired man was sitting, watching the clock slowly tick. Each second leaving like a minute, each minute feeling even longer. It wasn't like the chief to be calling him in, especially at this hour. He yawned and rubbed his eyes. He was surprised that he was even able to work at 3 in the morning and make it down to the office without crashing his car due to the lack of sleep he had experienced. It was restless, never –ending nightmares from his last assignment. The loss of his best friend, his partner, the most beautiful and caring woman on the planet and up until the point of her death, the only one that he had actually trusted. And now she was gone. It had only been a few days that she was killed, in action. That's what everyone around the office was saying. Oh, she was killed in action. How tragic.

How tragic indeed. Especially for her husband and kids. He had always thought her husband had been lucky for finding a girl like her. The kids were cute things too. Maybe that's why he was here. Maybe she wasn't dead. Maybe they had found her alive. He silently prayed, even though he had already knew that wasn't the case. Who would survive a fall like that? He cringed as the memory replayed in his mind.

_Their case had sent them to the coast, where they eventually caught a member of one of the city's biggest threats, an organization known only as WOLF. He remembered the man rather well, olive skin, dark stringy black hair, a large nose and a jagged scar running across his cheek. He was on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with the two of them hot on his trail. The WOLF agent had shot down their engine and she jumped in the water and swam after him. He should have stopped her. Sure, she was a fantastic swimmer, but he had a gun and he just shot, straight into the water and the only thing that came up from the water was the dark black hat that she had worn. The boat sped away leaving him in the middle of the Pacific Ocean alone._

"Detective Shortman."

He looked up at the officer standing in the doorway.

"The chief wants to see you."

Arnold walked through the door into the office of Chief Daniels. The room was small but comfortable, decorated in assorted tokens of her life, the occasional pictures of her family and her dog, Butterscotch. He noticed the whiteboard behind her and turned his attention directly to the victim's faces. He knew them already, a hotshot by the name of Lucas Dublin, son of Bill Dublin and Molly Dublin, owners of several large hotel chains all over the country. In other words, the family was loaded. The guy had a troublesome past, a partial record for all the crazy things that he had gotten himself into when he was a teenager, like the DUIs and the burning of an abandoned church just outside the city. He and Dublin were around the same age but Dublin was engaged to be married. The wedding would have been married next month; he remembered when his ex-girlfriend couldn't stop talking about it for weeks. The other victim is a Heidi Parker, the other half of the newly engaged couple. A girl from the country looking to make it big as a dancer. As for the criminals, there was only one word on the board. WOLF. He growled lowly.

"Chief."

"I've got a case for you, Detective. How much have you heard about WOLF?"

"Enough."

"What about the Black Mamba?"

He actually didn't know a lot of information about the Black Mamba, only that they were one of WOLF's deadliest and most clever agents. The name choice suited them well, considering how the black mamba was the deadliest snake in the world.

"Not as much."

"Your mission is to find them."

"Find the Black Mamba, Chief? Doesn't that seem impossible? We don't even have any leads on them. They could be anyone."

"We have some leads."

The screen then focused to the two shots of the Dublin family. Mother, father, son and girlfriend. One big happy family.

"The body that was found at the crime scene is the body of a girl who has been missing for over four months. A girl by the name of Stephanie Zenowitz. She's a long way from home to end up in LA."

"Maybe she wanted to start a new life."

"Lucas Dublin had been with this Heidi Parker girl for almost a year now, according to our outside sources."

"So that means that Heidi could still be alive?"

"Precisely, only pretending to be dead to make a getaway. According to one of our agents on the inside of WOLF, The Dublin family has been targeted for some time now. We believe that they send the Mamba after him."

"They sent the Black Mamba after him? What did he do?"

"Besides his family owning the biggest hotel chain in the country, much less the world? No one really knows. But we're determined to find out. This also puts a better lookout for the Mamba."

He focused back on the image of Heidi Parker, Dublin's supposed girlfriend but also what Arnold assumed was the Black Mamba in disguise.

"Our mamba is definitely a female agent. In this disguise, she's a brunette, green eyes. Approximately 5 feet 9 inches tall. At least 140 pounds. She looks fragile, but they don't call her the Black Mamba for nothing."

"So I have to find her?"

"And put a stop to her. If we can stop her; we can take out WOLF using her."

"Yes, Chief."

Arnold attempted to walk out of the room before the voice in the chair spoke up again.

"Detective, how would you feel about taking on another partner?"

He cringed.

"Honestly Chief, Alice Crandall was one of my best friends. I'm not ready to work with someone else, yet. I'd rather work alone on this one."

There was a mild pause before she turned her head back to her paperwork.

"As you wish. Good luck Detective."

**- Helga -**

"Where are you?"

"Does it fucking matter?"

"Is it done?"

"Of course, it's done. The cops are probably finding him and "Heidi Parker" dead by now. Let's just say an anonymous source tipped them off."

"Excellent. Just get back here as soon as you can."

"Yea, like that's gonna happen."

Helga was attempting to clear the blood from her gun. It sat on the edge of the sink as she attempted to take out her contacts and undo the wig that she was wearing. God she was finally free of all that. Maybe next time, she wouldn't need such an elaborate disguise. It's not like anyone knew who she was to begin with.

But there she was, staring at herself in the mirror. Her long blonde hair pulled up into a tight bun on the top of her head, ice blue eyes staring back at her. Sometimes even her own eyes seemed to terrify her, just by the intense shade of blue that they were. She put the gun back in its holster and sat down on the grungy bed and stared up at the ceiling. She had received a million and one phone calls today from her boss and she wasn't exactly pleased having to head back to base all of a sudden. Someone must have screwed up big time or the boss wouldn't be calling like this every couple of hours. Usually, she'd get the chance to lay low for a while, which she thoroughly enjoyed. But lately, the Boss never seemed to let her rest. That's the price she paid to get her way to the top. Well…along with sleeping with the last boss. She wasn't particularly proud of that moment.

This new guy though was cautious, careful with his plans. He knew that Helga was the best he had and used that to his advantage. Helga liked the attention, it meant that she got whatever she wanted. Most of the time.

The cell phone on the table buzzed again as she looked at the number and scowled.

"What do you want, Gammelthorpe?"

"Helga, the Boss…"

"Yea, yea, I heard when he called me. Give it a few days, I'll make it back."

"See that's the thing, we're in major trouble here."

"Who screwed up?"

"Gifaldi."

"Son of a bitch."

Before Helga had made it to the top, she had a partner. Sid Gifaldi could only be described in a few words. An arrogant, self-centered jackass who had an eye for anything with two legs and a pair of boobs on their chest. At one point, Sid had his eyes on her, until she beat him into submission. Despite his nature, Sid was one of the best agents that they had. Third best in Helga's opinion. Knowing that he screwed up was something that never happened. She sighed.

"I'm on my way. Where is he?"

"At the base getting hounded at by the boss. Not to mention Mellita."

"Mellita was on the case with him?"

"Nope. Bt you know how Mellita is."

Mellita Marin was not someone who you wanted to mess with. She was incredibly violent and loved to parade her aggression around. She had gotten Helga's respect almost instantly. She would have been Helga at one point, if it wasn't for the fact that Helga was much more clever than she was. Mellita was quick with an insult, and her gun, but not quick enough to get herself out of pressure and lie her way through any situations. That made Helga the best.

"Give me a day."

She quickly packed her stuff into the old-looking duffel bag, slipped a raven colored wig on her head, adjusted it and took a quick look in the mirror before closing the door behind her.

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**Author's Notes**

Hope you enjoyed reading Chapter 1...again. But Chapter 2 is more than halfway complete and will most likely be up next Wednesday. Considering I don't sleep. Ever. So now I just write all the time. I should be getting back to my weekly writing within the next couple weeks so that should be fun. Kinda. Except I liked sleeping. Yay insomnia?

**Two things:**

If you are/were (I know it's been a while) a regular reader of mine, Songs of Hillwood Chapter 21 will be up hopefully this weekend. At the earliest Saturday at the latest Sunday. And the song that goes with the chapter is completely different that what is posted in Chapter 20's hints. So yeah, look forward to that.

Also, Fighter Chapter 1 will be coming. Sooner rather than later. I hope. I said I'd debut it the summer. But since I decided to continue Mission Forever...it might not happen for a while. At least until I finish Mission Forever.

But that's it. **Stay tuned for Chapter 2 on Wednesday and Chapter 21 of Songs of Hillwood this weekend!**


	2. 2

Hello, hello.

**Here is Chapter 2 of Mission Forever!**

Hope you guys enjoy!

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**-Arnold-**

The morgue doors clicked open as Arnold walked into the medical lab of Dr. Thompson. The woman worked carefully at her table with one of the latest bodies to come in when Arnold walked into the room. She didn't lift her head from her work until he cleared his throat. She looked up at him and smiled, fixing the glasses that were falling off her face.

"Good afternoon Detective."

"Sheena, we're friends. You can call me Arnold."

"Sorry, I always forget."

Sheena Thompson was one of the smartest people that Arnold had ever worked with. While some of her habits seemed questionable, like her extreme measures to complete a project, to the way she kept a human skull sitting on her front desk for the world to see. Not many people liked talking to Sheena, but Arnold made it a habit to pop into her office almost every day to see her.

"I'm guessing you're on another case already."

"You can say that."

Sheena stared down at the floor awkwardly, but he understood.

"First case without Alice."

She looked back up and gave a half-hearted nod but continued to work with her equipment. From what he knew about Sheena and her work, her biggest supporter and friend had been his partner, Alice. When he wasn't in here talking to her, she was. The duo seemed to be Sheena's favorite people in the entire building, so as expected, he wasn't the only one who had been so expectedly damaged by her loss. She shook her head and pushed the body back into its cabinet.

"Have you heard back on anything?"

"You've asked me this every day for a week, Arnold."

"I know. It's just…"

"She's your partner. I know. I miss her too. But nothing's come up yet. No body, no sign that she's ever been killed. But I'm sure something will turn up soon."

"Yea, maybe."

Sheena went over to her desk and pulled out her lunch and sat down.

"I can't believe you eat your lunch in here."

"Arnold, this is the most sterile place in the entire department."

"It's also a bit depressing."

She shrugged.

"I'm used to it."

"I was gonna go to Elroy's for lunch. If you wanna come with."

"I would. But I'm swamped. The bodies for the Dublin case are on their way back in. I don't wanna miss it. The Chief needs the autopsy report on Lucas Dublin right away."

"I thought the Dublin autopsy was done."

"It was. But I found something that didn't make sense. That's what I get for missing a day of work and letting Louis take control. He missed the biggest piece of info yet! Interns."

"Which was?"

She took a bite of sandwich and a sip of her water before answering.

"There were bite marks. On the victim's neck. "

"Bite marks? Wasn't he shot in the head?"

"Shot in the head and tied up. You can see the marks around his wrists."

"Was the bullet still in there?"

"Didn't you get a case file, Arnold?"

"I might have…I just haven't read it yet."

She took another bite and shook her head.

"Hey, come on, I just got this case today."

"It's been all over the news!"

"I'm avoiding the news for a little bit."

"Why? Cause of Natasha? She's only on Channel 4. Can't you watch another channel?"

"Anything having to do with the news reminds me of her. Bad taste in my mouth."

"Get informed, Arnold. Your ex-girlfriend being the lead reporter for the Channel 4 news isn't going to be a good reason to avoid current events. Besides, you're gonna have to deal with her soon enough."

"Why's that?"

"Press conferences?"

"I thought the Chief was doing those."

"Obviously yes, but the news is gonna want to get reports from the lead detective. And that's you."

"Usually Alice did all the talking."

"Yea, she was good at that. Loved the camera too."

She frowned.

"The bullet was still in there, by the way. I think the killer wanted it to be found. 22 caliber. Forensics is still determining who the gun belongs too."

"Chief thinks it's WOLF."

"She's probably right, you know."

Arnold leaned on the edge of the desk as Sheena took a bite of a Mackintosh apple.

"You know anything about the Black Mamba, Sheena?"

"Black mambas are the world's deadliest snakes. I don't think it had anything to do with the Dublins."

"I meant the assassin."

"Oh. Then no."

"Tell me about the bite marks."

"They're light marks. Not enough to get a DNA reading, unfortunately."

"She bit him though?"

"A light nibble. Like a tease almost."

"She tortured him before she killed him."

"Evidence points that way."

He straightened himself up and walked towards the door.

"Thanks Sheena."

"You're welcome. And watch the news!"

**-Helga-**

Helga sat outside in her stolen car at an abandoned warehouse outside city limits. Just waiting and praying that she didn't have to deal with all this shit that was about to hit the fan when she walked in. She closed the car door behind her and walked into the building where an angry redhead waited.

"You're late."

Helga walked forward and the redhead followed her.

"Where have you been?"

"Can it, Marin. I did my job."

"And so did I. As always, we're cleaning up after Gifaldi."

"What happened?"

"He shot a cop."

"You're fucking kidding me."

"He shot a fucking cop. In front of her god damn partner. He wasn't even supposed to be where he was."

"And that was?"

"Speedboat, in the middle of the god damn Pacific Ocean."

"Who's the cop?"

"Some chick named Crandall."

"Crandall? I've heard that name before."

"One of the cops that got McKay a few years back. She was a rookie then too."

"She had a partner?"

"Partner came in about three years ago."

"Shouldn't that be a good thing that she's dead then?"

"Not to the Boss. He's waiting for you, by the way."

"He can wait."

"He's been asking me all day where you were."

"He. Can. Wait."

Mellita pulled back and Helga pulled the wig off her head.

"Forgot I had this on."

"I'm serious, Pataki."

"And so am I. If he wants me so bad, he can find me himself."

A voice echoed throughout the building.

"PATAKI!"

She flinched.

"Son of a bitch."

"Told you."

"On a scale of one to ten, one being cool as a cucumber, how mad is he at me slash how mad is he in general?"

"At you? About a 10 or 11. In general, triple that."

"Fuck."

"You better go."

Helga nodded and began her dreaded ascent to the boss' office. She opened the door and peered inside. The entire room was dark enough that she could only see the outline of the desk in the back middle of the room and of the large chair that sat behind it. She heard a small whimper in the corner of the room and she turned to the sound. Sid Gifaldi sat in a chair in the corner, visibly shaking. She turned back to the large chair in the middle of the room.

"You wanted to see me?"

"Just where the hell have you been?"

"On my mission, sir. Like I was told to."

"The Dublin house is only a hour way from here. You've been missing for 6. Care to explain?"

"I needed some breathing room. I knew you'd stick me with another mission as soon as I got back. I needed and still need a break."

"You'll get a break when your mission is over."

"My mission, sir, was to get access to all the Dublin accounts and I did. You then said I had to kill him. And. I. did. That's all."

"Not that mission."

"You're putting me on another one, aren't you?"

"Since Gifaldi clearly SCREWED UP his, you're taking over."

"You're putting me on some remedial case? Are you fucking joking? Put Marin or Petersen on that."

"The cops are all over our asses because one of their own is dead."

He tossed a file at her feet.

"Alice Crandall."

"The dead cop."

"She hasn't turned up yet. She might not be dead." A voice squeaked from the back corner.

"SHUT YOUR GOD DAMN MOUTH GIFALDI. I'M DONE WITH YOUR SHIT."

He whimpered as Helga turned to look at him. She gulped.

"Pataki, you and Marin are on the Rodriguez case. She'll be the active agent."

"I'm not working for Marin or even with Marin. I work alone."

"Fine. Then you have the Fredrickson case."

"Fredrickson?"

"Louis and Edna Fredrickson. Louis is a retired cop, Edna is a housewife. Louis has some information about WOLF that I'd like to get rid of. Your mission is to get into that house and destroy the evidence."

"And what evidence is that?"

"You remember Florian?"

"Our old boss, he's dead. Why does that matter?"

"He's dead because he ratted us out. Like a little wuss. Gave out the agent's names on the West Fire four years ago. That's why McKay and Harrison are in jail and Terris is dead. Fredrickson is the one who got the confession out of Florian."

"So you want me to get the confession from Florian from Fredrickson's house?"

"Florian never got a chance to confess where we were hiding before I killed him. But Fredrickson has figured out where we are. It's all on his laptop."

"So you want the laptop?"

"Yes."

"And what about the Fredricksons?"

"They know too much, so it's simple. I want them dead."

**-Arnold-**

Arnold sat with the case file in front of him at the local diner, Elroy's. The place was surprisingly crowded for a Wednesday afternoon and the waitresses seemed to be flying around the place, serving table after table. He sat with his coffee beside him and nose deep in papers of dead bodies, shotguns and mysterious identities. He tapped the side of the mug when a body appeared in the booth across from him. He looked up briefly to find an African American man across the table from him.

"Another case?"

"Yea. Always busy."

They stuck the fists to each other and wiggled their thumbs.

"What's got you here?"

"I stopped at the station to look for you. One of the cops said you left early. Figured you were either there or at Elroy's."

He grinned. Gerald Johanssen had been his best friend since they were kids. Growing up in a suburb of Los Angeles, he and Gerald were inseparable. Constantly throwing baseballs in the baseball field across from his house, sitting on his front porch eating ice cream and laughing at movies in his room. Gerald had been his most trustworthy friend, his romantic advisor and on some occasions, his punching bag. When they went off to college, Arnold was determined to be a cop, his best friend Gerald had decided to become a teacher, specifically in music at a nearby high school. He had always been talented when it came to music. He could play any instrument and could sing and dance. His job was the reason that he had met his girlfriend, a shy Chemistry teacher who worked across the hall from him. He was also his roommate. Gerald turned to look at his phone and frowned.

"You okay?"

"Me? Yeah Arnold, it's just…"

"What?"

"The school wants to cut part of the music program. Says it's taking up too much money to run."

"What are you gonna do?"

"Nothing at the moment. I just have to wait."

"Why not do a concert or something?" He raised the coffee mug to his lips and started to take a sip.

"I thought about that. But that's not actually the reason I'm here."

"What's up then?"

"Natasha showed up at the house looking for you."

Arnold almost choked on his coffee.

"She… what?"

"She showed up at the house as I was leaving for work this morning. Looking for you."

"What did she want?"

"Dunno. She wouldn't tell me. I told her that you weren't gonna be around all day."

"Thanks for the cover. She'll probably know I'm here though."

"How do you know?"

"She always knows where I am, Gerald."

Gerald laughs.

"What's the case you are working on?"

"You've watched the news I'm assuming…about the Dublins"

"Yea. How their son died."

"He was murdered by a group of assassins."

"Assassins? Why?"

"Dunno. That's what I have to figure out."

"You're head detective on this?"

"Yea. Which is why Natasha is looking for me. To get as much information as she can about the case."

"Have you heard anything about your partner?"

"Not yet."

"I'm sure it will be soon."

"That's what everyone has been saying."

Gerald slid out of the booth seat across from him and patted him on the shoulder.

"It's gonna be alright man."

"I hope so."

As they did their secret handshake and Gerald walked out the door, Arnold turned his attention back to the case in front of him.

"I hope so."

-Helga-

She walked into one of the bedrooms after receiving her next mission. She grumbled loudly as she threw her duffle bag across the room and flopped onto the queen-sized bed. Curling herself into a ball, she laid facing the blank wall and attempting to close her eyes and fall asleep. She knew that she wouldn't be able to though. Her thoughts kept her mind racing every second and every time she had managed to close her eyes, the same nightmare would replay in her head. It didn't take long before someone knocked on the door.

"Helga? You in there?"

She didn't feel like moving or doing anything, so she stayed silent, praying that they would go away, but the door opened.

"Helga?"

It was a man's voice, she could tell since there was a deeper tone to his voice. But it was high pitch, like he had been scared out of his mind. She knew exactly who it was, but closed her eyes and pretended to be asleep. She did not feel like dealing with a scared shitless Sid Gifaldi. She'd be listening to his whining all night. She heard a sigh before he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him before she straightened herself to stare at the ceiling briefly before sitting up and looking back at the reflection of herself in the mirror one last time before she decided to once again don the disguise of another.

Another life that she would have to live that wasn't hers. Was anything in her life ever really hers to begin with? She could briefly remember the points in her life before she had decided to join WOLF. The amounts of trouble that she would get into on the streets of Los Angeles, the various vandalism and shoplifting charges, she remembered her days as a juvenile delinquent surprisingly well. In order for her to escape from the police's watchful eye, Florian had taken her under his wing and showed her life that she would never forget.

There were some memories though that remained fuzzy, while she remembered how she got into WOLF and her days as a teenager constantly on the run, there was one moment that during that time that she could never seem to get the details straight. A boy around her age had saved her once, before she had found Florian. She couldn't remember his name or his face, frankly the only thing that she remembered was the way he said hello, an accent that she had heard on TV once but hearing it in person threw her off. It was an East Coast accent, New England almost. Maybe even New York. But she would shake the idea out of her head. That boy was long gone. Everything about her past was long gone.

She slipped on the brunette wig and closed her eyes before looking back into the mirror.

Goodbye Helga Pataki, Hello Aria Fredrickson.

* * *

**Thanks for reading!**

Chapter 3 will hopefully be up by next Wednesday-Friday (depending on what's going on)

Chapter 22 of Songs of Hillwood will be up this weekend so look for it!


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